Dear Sir/Madam

I have some questions related to visas for China. We are two Norwegian tourists who are going to travel around in Asia. We travel from Norway in the beginning of February and are going to China in the end of April. At the Chinese Embassy in Oslo (Norway) they told us that it was too early to apply for visa now, since it is only valid for 3 months. We wonder if we can apply for a visa to Hong Kong / China in Manila, and if you know how long time it will take? (We are planning to stay at the Philippines for 10 days)
(We are travelling together with a group on a guided tour, and we have the planetickets from China and back home, if that can help us to get the visum)

Hope you can help us with this question.